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Thank you to everyone who has donated to the Go Fund Me Campaign to Rebuid THE CAT HOUSE following the fire that destroyed our store on November 12th, 2015. After much consideration we have decided to donate all money from this fund to The MEOW Foundation and The Cochrane And Area Humane Society. MEOW and Cochrane Humane also received proceeds from our CAT HOUSE T- shirts, toques and totes. We will also be donating funds raised from auction items and CAT HOUSE T-shirt sales to three other rescue groups helping cats: 1 - Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society, Calgary2 - Arts Senior Animal Rescue, Calgary+Edmonton 3 - Whisker Cat Rescue, Red DeerAs well, we made donations to the animals affected by The Fort McMurray fire. The total of the donations is over $25,000.

THE CAT HOUSE will no longer have a retail store but will continue instead as an online business. Just go to our products page to see what we have available. We will continue to add to our product selection.

Help us to support the cats by attending the MEOW Foundation Christmas Party Sunday Dec.11.16 (see meowfoundation.com) We raised $235 at the Cochrane and Area Humane Society Christmas Party on Dec.10th. (Update - Thanks to you we also raised $525 for MEOW)

Hello to all reading this. Joanne here, writing to update you on our search for a new location for THE CAT HOUSE after the November 12th, 2015 fire that destroyed our business and five others in the Stadium Shopping Centre. Many of you have contacted us to let us know that you are anticipating our store reopening. Understandably some of you are wondering what's taking so long to find a new location and set up again. Please know that we are still actively searching but have simply not found a space that fits our needs. At any given time only a small percentage of retail space is vacant or available. Our leasing agent told us that there is less retail space in NW than in any other quadrant of the city, and our customers have clearly communicated to us that they would prefer that our store remain in NW. Over the past eight months we have found, enquired about, and visited dozens of potential locations. Only three have met our criteria and in all three cases our negotiations were fruitless.

We are looking for a 2500 sq ft space with:- a delivery door in the back that very large trucks can pull up to with pallets of cat food and litter- easy access for cars to pull in and free parking for our customers- good visibility from nearby roads

When news of the fire hit the media we were contacted by many of you with offers to help, and suggestions to set up a fund raising campaign. Candace, our young manager, is very adept with social media and set up a GoFundMe campaign which quickly reached the $25,000 goal. Those funds are safe in a separate GoFundMe bank account that Candace set up. The money will be used to help with the expenses of setting up a new location.

We had hoped to be up and running months ago and understand you may be concerned about the GoFundMe contributions. Please know that we are doing all we can to keep THE CAT HOUSE going. We will continue our search and post updates on our website, www.facebook/thecathouseinc.com & GoFundMe

If you wish to contact me for any reason call 403-228-2287 (403-CAT-CATS) or email to info@thecathouseinc.com

We appreciate all the support you have shown us through this dramatic and traumatic turn of events. Your kind words have meant the world to us and we are keenly aware of your wishes for us to reopen as soon as possible. We know that retail is location, location, location and we can only choose from what is available at the moment.

Please know that we are still busy in the background keeping up with pet industry news and continually sourcing new products. We can hardly wait to show you all the creative cat products found on a recent business trip.

Prior to the fire, we knew that the Stadium Shopping Centre was going to be redeveloped in the next year or so. We had hoped to partner with our young manager, Candace, who would have been the ideal person to carry on this unique business. At our age we need to start thinking about our exit plan, and our future retirement. When most leases are negotiated, the standard term is for five or ten years. We may need someone to take over before that time period, which is why want to have a partner when we sign the lease.

Circumstances have changed that make this particular partnership unlikely to happen now. We have put 24 years in to this business and would like to see it continue. THE CAT HOUSE has incredible potential to continue growing. It is already the largest cat specialty store in Canada. We have many products not found in other pet stores. The Internet and eCommerce could possibly double our sales within the next 5 years.

If you are interested in joining with us to reopen THE CAT HOUSE please contact us. We would stay in the business long enough to get it going strong again and you feel confident taking over.

About

THE CAT HOUSE INC. was Canada's largest cat specialty retail store for over 24 years until it was destroyed by fire in 2015. We are now doing eCommerce specializing in Honeysuckle Wood - a treat for cats that we pioneered when we introduced it to the pet industry in 1991.